The last few weeks have been awash with how our democracy, or "democracy", depending on your point of view, needs reform. Jack Straw's announcement yesterday dismayed many who see the House of Lords as fundamentally anti-democratic – they will have to wait until after the next election to see the result of any reforms.

Maybe the recent furore over MPs' expenses has caused public cynicism to reach such dangerous levels that the link between constituents and representatives has now been entirely severed. If parliament's reputation is in tatters, where does that leave representative government?